Guess what time it is! Then again, who cares what time it is, because here’s another Guest Geek post! (People are way too obsessed with this whole space-time continuum thingy we live in anyway.) Today actually combines two features here on Geek Notes: The Guest Geek post—but we already covered that—and the less-frequent geek-related Top 5 List. Today’s guest is Brittni Williams, who’s selected what I think is a rather difficult topic: the Top 5 Best Video Game Movies. That’s a heck of a minefield right there, and let’s be honest, the pickings are pretty slim. Turning video games into movies (and, frankly, vice-versa) has rarely turned out well, and a list like this is sort of like listing the top 5 healthiest foods at McDonald’s. Still, I think Brittni manages to make some good picks out of what’s available, though I differ a little on the details. Yet enough of my blatherskite! Here’s Brittni…

Today I return to the Land of the Guest Geeks, this time with fellow geek, author, and collector K. Williams. (Seriously, look at all those geek collectables! The best I can do is a tribble, a LEGO X-Wing and a Dalek Christmas tree ornament. …Well, and some few other things.) We all gravitate to our own particular flavors of geekdom, each of us drawing particular rewards, enjoyment, and encouragement. Today, she shares some of her own journey. Her story especially resonates with me as a writer—I can relate far too much to the gauntlet-O-rejection that is the publishing world. But even if you’re not a writer, I think you’ll love this one…[Read more…]

Hello, geek-folk! It’s about time for another Guest Geeks post, and this time I’ve got someone here who’s going to give you a bit more science in your science fiction. His name is Massimo Marino, a fellow sci-fi author who’s got at least one up on me in that this guy has actually worked at CERN. You’ve probably heard of CERN: it’s where they’ve got the Large Hadron Collider, and aside from it being used to help create gods in Zeus Is Dead, they also use it in the real world to do actual science that’s even more interesting!

But Massimo’s here today to talk more about the science of a slightly different topic. I’ll let him take it from here…[Read more…]

Hi everybody, and welcome to another Guest Geek post! Today we’ll delve back onto the gaming world with a Twitter friend of mine in Washington, D.C. (and A Shadow in the Flames fan) who answers to Kelly but is better known as Capital Gamer. She’ll take us into the indie game developer world with a look at Camp Keepalive, which seems to be a fantastic idea for a strategy game, AND an interview with one of the developers. While this is the first time I’ve heard of Camp Keepalive myself, I can vouch for Kelly’s taste in games. She enjoyed XCOM, and introduced me to an awesomely creative puzzle game on Steam called Machinarium. Her interviewee looks to have some pretty good taste himself, and you just can’t go wrong in strategy with Sid Meyer as an influence.

But enough of me wording-around! Time for me to turn it over to my guest…

The world of role-playing games is widespread these days, with games of every kind, in many different mediums, spanning genres and filling up convention after convention. While stigmas and stereotypes still exist for those who play, player demographics span nearly every age, gender, and class. (Did you know Roger Moore and Vin Diesel were adult Dungeons & Dragons players?) But it wasn’t always so. Like rock & roll before it, tabletop role-playing—and D&D in particular—had some, shall we say, wildly inaccurate perceptions in its early days. Today, Guest Geek Eric Turowski paints us a picture…

Welcome back! (Look at me, typing as if I’m welcoming you back from a commercial break or something. I’ve been watching too much Conan.) Given the big ol’ “Guest Geeks” up there at the top of the page, the more attentive among you have likely already picked up on the fact that it’s time for another guest to the blog who will help me fill it up with something geeky. This time we’ve got Lovecraft fan and fellow writer K.M. Alexander, who I met for the first time at Norwescon in April after learning of his writing from the Seattle Geekly podcast folk. Here’s here to talk about everyone’s favorite Lovecraftian insanity-entity, Cthulhu… So let’s give a big “Ai! Ai! Alexander fhtagn!” and read on, because he makes a very good point about…

Vampires. They’re everywhere: In our cinema, in our nightmares, and sometimes in our kitchens. (What, you think English “blood pudding” is something a rational human being actually thought would taste GOOD?) Well, now they’re in the Guest Geek series! Yep, it’s time for another installment of Guest Geeks. My guest this time is Z.D. Gladstone. She was kind enough to have me on the Shadows on the Sound podcast a little while back talking about Greek mythology, so I invited her to drop by Geek Notes. Z.D. has given us a post that combines two of my own interests: psychology and vampires.